Haju coal project

The Lampunut coal project is a proposed open cut metallurgical and thermal coal deposit which is included in the umbrella Maruwai coal project of BHP-Billiton. The Maruwai coal project is held by a joint venture in which BHP Billiton is a 75% shareholder and a subsidiary of Adaro hold the remaining 25% share.

The Haju Coal Resource is located in the Lahai Coal Contract of Work (CCoWs) and is 25 km southwest of Lampunut. BHP Billiton stated that as of the end of 2009 the deposit had 11 million tonnes in a total resource of 14 million tonnes of coal.

In July 2009, following the global financial crisis, BHP Billiton announced that it was shelving the Maruwai coal project after reviewing work on the Haju trial mine. In a brief media release the company stated that it had "assessed the progress of the Haju trial mine and determined it is not a sufficient fit with our long term investment strategy." It also stated that "further evaluation of the company’s interests in the Maruwai Coal Project is underway to determine the best future commercial options."

The project may be revived after the March 2010 announcement by BHP Billiton that it had entered into "binding agreements to create a new joint venture for its Indonesian Coal Project (ICP) with a subsidiary of PT Adaro Energy TBK (Adaro), which has agreed to acquire a 25 per cent interest in the ICP joint venture".

Related SourceWatch articles

 * BHP Billiton's coal interests
 * Indonesia and coal

External resources

 * Dave Murray, President BHP Billiton Metallurgical Coal, Analysts and Investors Site Visit", Queensland, June 2, 2005. (See slides 62-68 "BHP Billiton Maruwai Coal Project" for an overview of the proposed project).